Hog Island

Watching the weather as it approached there were to be two good weather days at the end of the week May 11th-16th. They also corresponded with high tide around 14:00. The winds were to be from the SSE on Thursday 10-15 and SW on Friday 10-15 with gusts to 25. I figured sailing from the sound end of the island on Friday would put me on a beam reach back Willis Wharf, so the north end would be first, then the south end. Saturday the winds were forcaseted to be too high for me to extend safely for a third day, and more importantly I did not want to go for more the one night the first time.

I got underway from Willis Wharf and promptly discovered a flaw in my careful planning. I had planned for the tides at my destination. The problem was I was try to head out to Hog Island Bay against the in coming tide and bucking a almost 2 knot current. The wind was light and the 3+ miles down the river took me a lot longer than I expected. As soon as I cleared the river into the bay I realized that getting to both the north end and the south ends of the island was not going to happened. The winds favored going to the north end, so that became my destination. The sail across the bay was beautiful. Upon getting to the north end of the island I was looking the old coast guard station there. As I got closer and closer I could not see it. The brick building I was looking for couldn’t burn completely away, and as storm might ruin it, but the bricks would remain. I saw nothing!! Thinking I might have made an error in my navigation I cross referenced to the two devices and confirmed I was in the correct spot. After landing at a dock there and walking on the Island I saw remains of brick and general demolition debris. The station clearly had been removed. I was disappointed that something I had been planning to see for a long time wasn’t there even tho its still on google earth. I found out later talking to a local in Willis Wharf it was removed a couple of winters ago.

After eating lunch on the island and going for a mile hike into the interior seeing white tail dear, I decided to scrub the over night option. The reason was simple. The SSE wind was already picking up as the land warmed up. Knowing it was to come in from the SW the next day that meant I would have an upwind sail over a pretty long fetch to make the next day if I stayed over night. Sailing down to the south end of the island so I would have a reach the next day was out of the question as wind was currently straight upwind over various shallows. Combined with the disappointment of the station being razed it made it easy to decide to head back to the ramp.

The reach across Hog Island Bay was a real ride. Sustained speeds of 5.5knots and more than once I saw over six knots on the GPS! The problem came when I made the turn to the north to go back up the channel to Willis Wharf. The wind was blowing across a long open fetch and against the current on out flowing tide. The result was some 2-3 foot standing wave. With no way to de-power the rig head straight down wind I was hitting the back sides of the wave pretty fast the was a little out of my comfort zone for control. I ended up taking the sail down and running the beginning part under bare pole and me standing. I still needed to raise the rig after clearing the rough section to get to the ramp in decent time as I was running again a two knot current. I made it back to the ramp by 7pm. Three hour drive home got me in bed by 11. It was a long day.